Evaluation of Dose Distribution and a Pilot Study of Population Doses for Diagnostic X Ray Exposure in Taiwan in 1997

Abstract

Evaluating medical radiation doses is very important because an estimated 80% of man-made radiation doses comes from medical applications. This study evaluated X ray doses from lung and abdomen examinations. An ionisation chamber was extensively used to standardise X ray doses. This investigation evaluated the deep equivalent dose, the shallow equivalent dose, the effective dose, and the effective dose equivalent, by using TLD LiF:Mg,Ti placed in a male RANDO phantom. The experiments were performed according to the parameters (kV p , mA.s) and procedures used in actual clinical examinations. In addition, this study estimated the population dose due to diagnostic X ray treatments using nationwide statistics for annual cases of X ray diagnostic examinations, in cooperation with the Central Health Insurance Agency in Taiwan. Finally, risk analyses were performed to elucidate the stochastic effects.